Interpretations in projection

The author uses the term 'interpretations in projection' to denote a form of interpretation which the analyst can use in extreme situations when he feels that he can no longer get through to his patient. This technique is particularly indicated with patients who resort to massive projective identification. The aim of interpretation in projection is to allow the patient to rediscover the bond of identity with the part of himself projected into the analyst. It falls into two stages, in the first of which the analyst becomes the spokesman for the 'healthy' part which the patient has projected into the analyst so as to protect it from the invading introjected object with which it is for the time being merged. In a second stage, the analyst may, where appropriate, give a complementary interpretation in which he addresses the analysand by his own name in order to interpret the relationship expressed in the transference through projection and introjection. The author gives some clinical examples of interpretations in projection.